Two new trustees elected; two re-elected

The Stanford Board of Trustees at its December meeting elected two new members and re-elected two members whose terms were set to expire in late February.

David Laney of Dallas and Cory A. Booker of Newark, N.J., were elected to five-year terms, beginning on March 1. William Halter of Washington, D.C., and Mari J. Baker of Redwood City, Calif., were re-elected to second terms.

The elections followed recommendations of the Joint Selection Committee of the Stanford Alumni Association Trustee Nominating Committee and the Stanford Board of Trustees Committee on Nominations.

Laney, 48, is an attorney at Jenkins and Gilchrest in Dallas. He is commissioner of the Texas Department of Transportation, director of the Texas Turnpike Authority and a member of the Texas Coastal Coordination Council.

He received his bachelor's degree in humanities from Stanford in 1971 and his law degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1977.

Laney has participated in Stanford's Major Gift and Centennial Campaign and has mobilized young alumni in Dallas.

Booker, 28, is a staff attorney and program coordinator at the Urban Justice Center in New York. He also serves as a consultant and researcher for the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and is a member of the Newark Advocates for Children.

Booker received his bachelor's degree in political science from Stanford in 1991 and his master's degree in sociology in 1992. A 1994 Rhodes Scholar, he received his law degree from Yale in 1997.

As an undergraduate, Booker was co-president of the Class of 1991 and a member of the varsity football team. As an alumnus, he has been active volunteering in both admissions and development.

Halter, 37, is the senior adviser to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President of the United States, where he has been since 1993.

He was chief economist for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance from 1989 to 1991 and was an associate with McKinsey and Co. in Washington, D.C., from 1986 to 1989.

Halter received a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from Stanford in 1983. He was Phi Beta Kappa and was named a Rhodes Scholar, a Truman Scholar and a Marshall Scholar (he turned down the Marshall to accept the Rhodes scholarship). He earned a master's degree in economics from Oxford University in 1986.

At Stanford, Halter was coordinator of the academic advising program for first-year students, a resident assistant in Roble Hall and a teaching assistant in economics. He also co-founded the Stanford Partners Project, which matched at-risk juveniles with adult role models.

Halter worked with the Stanford-in-Washington program as an instructor in economics from 1988 to 1991, and more recently worked as a fundraiser and recruiter of guest speakers and instructors.

Baker, 32, is senior vice president of the consumer division at Intuit in Menlo Park and Mountain View. Prior to working at Intuit, where she helped expand the Quicken financial software program from generating $5 million in revenue to more than $70 million, Baker worked at Now Software in Portland, Ore. and at E.F. Hutton in Palo Alto.

She received her bachelor's degree in economics and sociology from Stanford in 1985. Baker is a member of the university's Commission on Technology in Teaching and Learning and has consulted with the development office on direct-mail campaigns, recruiting, research, job descriptions and focus groups.